"The Republican alternative will have helped 3 million people secure coverage, which is barely keeping up with population growth. Compare that to the Democratic bill, which covers 36 million more people and cuts the uninsured population to 4 percent.
But maybe, you say, the Republican bill does a really good job cutting costs. According to CBO, the GOP's alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.
The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan."
They've had a lot longer than that! Health care reform became a major issue under GHW Bush! Bush even had a plan! As did Clinton. Of course GW Bush didn't.
The Repubs have come up with alternatives too, like health care savings accounts and tax breaks (they're still pushing the tax breaks. For the insurance companies, not you and me.)
But their basic alternative to Obamacare is -not- Obamacare. 8^P
I've been heavily criticized on this forum for going into detail in answering questions like this. In every step along the way - practically on a monthly basis since 2009, Republicans have presented viable alternatives to Obamacare - from entire re-writes to individual legislation.
I have provided links to the actual text of these proposals, but the response is always the same, "I don't follow bull$hit links". So, I give up. I'm not going to do your research for you. If you are not aware of the dozens and dozens of proposals the Republicans have come up with, then you HAVE a big problem, and you ARE a big problem. You're not alone - and as long as people on the left refuse to acknowledge that there are people who don't share their views, that these people work very hard to make their voices heard, that these views are published everywhere from the Congressional Record to any of a hundred news outlets, then this country is doomed.
Unfortunately, the leadership on the left is the biggest culprit in spreading the myth that Republicans have no ideas, have no answers, and just want to obstruct a black president with their racist ways. It's amazing to me how many people just buy into that.
Do yourself a favor. Reword your question a little, and put it into that little Google Search box and see what you come up with. Just try a little.
Regarding your "Additional Details" - the effort to defund is only recent, and you're right - it has been the majority of the effort. Do you think that's wrong, or unreasonable? The time to propose changes is long gone - and as I pointed out, nearly every effort on the part of Republicans to make their voices heard was shut down in its tracks.
By most accounts - including the CBO and most economists, Obamacare will be a disaster - it will increase the deficit, it will increase taxes, it will increase the bureaucracy of government, it will provide plenty of incentive for businesses to either drop their coverage, reduce their size so as not to need to provide coverage, or reduce their labor force to part-time and temporary workers. When you say "Obamacare covers many times that number", you're really only basing that on a promise that has been very heavily challenged. If you did what I suggested earlier, and "Tried a little" you'd see that there is a lot of mainstream, middle-of-the-road opinion that points out that Obamacare is likely to ELIMINATE coverage for just as many people as it provides for.
So - to many, Obamacare is a speeding train, headed for a major wreck. The idea of defunding is to stop the train in its tracks - go back to the drawing board, actually LISTEN to some ideas from the other side, and try to implement a plan that will work. The Democrats seem to want to climb aboard the train and see if they can fix the brakes before stopping it.
On the other hand, I did read a very interesting editorial about this - presenting the point of view is that everyone, especially the Democrats, know that this plan is doomed to failure. All politicians, anyway - people like you and me don't really matter to them.
The opinion of this op-ed was that the point was never to end up with Obamacare, but to let it fail - and then replace it with a single payer system, which is what Obama has wanted all along. Once you hand out entitlements, you can't take them back - so even in light of a dismal failure Obamacare can never be repealed. The un-sustainable economics of it will have to be fixed - and they'll be fixed with a true Nationalized healthcare system.
That's called an "end run". Could it be? Seems that's the direction we're headed.
They actually had a longer time, there were six years they could have put their own ideas forward, and they came up with Health Insurance Savings plan. a very complicated and generally unused system of tax breaks with high deductibles and enough confusion to make you understand how it was that the ACA didn't seem so bad.
Its underutilized and really answered none of the problems of affordability. Focusing instead on interest if you don't need it. In the meantime, we all are paying more and getting less, and its not really sensible to expect a job to give you insurance, and when we hear so many giving it up, well, they've been doing that for years. With or without ACA. It makes no sense to tell a phone company they have to offer insurance and wade through various representative and make those decisions. That's not what they were formed to do.
This is because the Capitalists support their own who, in this case, happens to be Big Insurance and Big Pharmaceutical. In typical Republican fashion they don't like change or progress.
The government has known for the past twenty years that our for profit health care system was broken, but no one had the guts to stand up against the capitalists who, contributes generously to their "campaign fund". Obama had the guts to do it and he was willing to risk his political career to give Americans affordable health care and be protected from greedy insurance companies. It is good for the country when the 36 million Americans with out any health care will be able to buy affordable health care for their families.
Some of the Republicans who are opposing the Affordable Health care Act are receiving generous funds from Big insurance. They can be found online at opensecrects,org
Here's the thing. Government run healthcare is not free market and I for one enjoy free market principles. I was not for Hillary care and not for Obamacare.
Yes the RINO's should have come up with TORT reform. Should have allowed insurance to cross states lines but incase you didn't notice the TEA Party didn't get revved up until Nancy Pelosi started spending like a drunk in 2008. and it wasn't the TEA Party at the time but we were the same people. The debt was going up and Bush did nothing to stop it.
RINO's are just as much to fault but you on the left are so busy calling the TEA Party anarchist and teabaggers you cannot listen to the plans. Free market principles would fix the uninsured making insurance affordable and not ONE SIZE FITS ALL like we will have with Obamacare. Take your blinders off and join the discussion not the rhetoric.